Friday, September 24, 2010

Truthiness over Substance

Click over to any mainstream media site this afternoon and type "Christopher Coates" in their search bar and see what you get. A quick survey showed not much... here's CNN (not on main page); ABC had a back page shortie from the AP as did CBS and MSNBC. The WaPo, to their credit, was the only main news outlet giving the story top billing first slot on their web page:

Former voting section chief Christopher Coates, who was transferred to the U.S. attorney's office in South Carolina in the midst of a controversy over the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case, testified Friday morning before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Justice Department officials strongly dispute his allegations against the agency.

The paper of record had nothing on Coates as of 5 pm CDT. But they did have a top page feature on someone who once testified in front of Congress, Valerie Plame. Maybe that was a tweak.

Of course the all had prominent front page coverage of comedian Stephen Colbert 'testifying' before a House subcommittee today. Now, a cynical person might think the Democrats were trying to hijack the headlines to shift focus away from what could be a very embarrassing story about the Holder Justice Department by bringing a clown to Congress. Not sure which one was scheduled first but Zoe Lofgren, the congressgoof who invited Colbert, claims he was invited to bring attention to the cause of illegal immigration.

There's nothing on Lofgren's Congressional page but her Facebook page has a post that 'explains' why she invited him wherein Colbert says he was there to stand up for those who leave their rights at the border and make a mockery of our rule of law by entering America illegally to pick fruit for cash to send back to Mexico (paraphrasing, of course).

So maybe there was no conspiracy but the fact is most of the mainstream papers felt a comedian in Congress other than Al Franken deserved much more coverage than potential fraud at the DOJ. If only Emanuel had fired a few US Attorneys.